Author: Joshua Howsam

It’s no secret that this season hasn’t exactly gone as hoped for the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans. Coming off of back-to-back ALCS appearances and returning a mostly similar roster, the club currently sits at 61-72 and are only the in the wild card race if you squint really hard. Poor performance is certainly deserving […]

Last December, I wrote something explaining why Marcus Stroman was poised for a breakout in 2017. In that piece, I noted that Stroman’s three fastballs had a greater separation in their movement than any other starting pitcher in baseball while all coming in at very similar speeds. That was obviously noteworthy, so I felt that […]

The Blue Jays beleaguered starting rotation got some reinforcement this week with the returns of J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano. Happ made it through five innings against the Reds and Liriano lasted into the sixth against New York. Happ wasn’t exactly sharp, but with just one rehab outing under his belt, that wasn’t overly surprising. […]

It probably wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that Jason Grilli’s 2017 so far has been an unmitigated disaster. The once-reliable reliever has been anything but, posting a 7.71 ERA and having allowed five home runs in just 14 1/3 innings (a whopping 3.2 HR/9). That home run rate is by no means historic, but […]

Ever since moving into the Blue Jays rotation on May 5, 2015, Marco Estrada has been one of the more effective pitchers in the American League and an extremely reliable member of the Toronto starting five (or six). As such, it should surprise nobody to see that Estrada is currently sporting a 3.60 ERA or […]

Justin Smoak did not have a good start to the season. After his first nine games, the switch-hitter was batting a paltry .208/.240/.292 with more strikeouts (8) than hits (5). It was obviously a small sample size, but coming off of last year’s abysmal performance, which included a career high 32.8 percent strikeout rate, had […]

Joe Biagini has been something of a revelation during his brief tenure in Toronto. Since being selected in the Rule Five draft, the quirky California native has done nothing but prove he belongs on a major league pitching staff. The only question is what role was best suited for the large righty. Last September, I argued […]

Every week in this space, we’re going to be running down the “Pitcher of the Week” for the Toronto Blue Jays. This won’t always be the best pitcher, but it will always be someone who did something notable that we can break down further. Using information from games through Friday (Saturday-Friday), we will try to […]

“If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.” – Bob Feller DUNEDIN – Catcher defense is an interesting thing. When trying to evaluate it, most of the talk has shifted towards pitch framing (or […]

DUNEDIN – It was a good day for Dalton Pompey. After battling illness for the first week of games, the switch-hitting 24 year old finally found his way into the lineup in Grapefruit League action. One walk, one nice catch at the fence, and one opposite field home run later, a solid first 2017 impression […]